Secondary School Appeal

[NynaevesSister]

A very good friend was going through a really rough time last year, she was also ill - not bad, she didn't need to go to hospital but she was still poorly. On top of that she had taken on a child from her family in a foster situation who was having huge behavioral problems at school, and she found out that her youngest child (she has 4 boys) was diagnosed with developmental issues. And she was home schooling five boys in the middle of a pandemic. In the midst of all that she missed putting in her third child's secondary application form.

As a result he has been assigned a school that's a very unpopular school. But more important than that, it is not the same school his older brothers attend. Her partner is no longer with them, and his eldest brother (who will be attending sixth form there) is very much the role model for the younger siblings. In terms of mentoring and support, it's really crucial that he goes to school with his siblings. However, it is a hugely popular school, one of the more oversubscribed in London and it is small. Even though he will be high on the criteria list as he has a sibling in year 10, it's possible there won't be enough movement by September.

Thank you for reading this far! She is really overwhelmed by everything. Her appeal is next week. I have two questions, and they are quite broad. 1. what can she expect to happen in the appeal and 2. how should she present her case?

I'd much rather people with a strong case for medical or social circumstances used that route than go through the whole appeals process

Going down that route can only move them up the waiting list. It may get them a place if one becomes available, but it is not guaranteed. A successful appeal, on the other hand, gets them a place immediately, regardless of movement on the waiting list.

@prh47bridge

I'd much rather people with a strong case for medical or social circumstances used that route than go through the whole appeals process

Going down that route can only move them up the waiting list. It may get them a place if one becomes available, but it is not guaranteed. A successful appeal, on the other hand, gets them a place immediately, regardless of movement on the waiting list.

But going to the top of the waiting list at the beginning of May (or ideally much earlier with hindsight) gives them more chance of a place well before the appeal date in June. It also potentially makes the appeal simpler for everyone if the school has already accepted the circumstances.

I have won an appeal for my daughter. It had to go to a second appeal because first one was refused and I had to persuade diocese to allow a second.

I made sure that I explained the case very clearly with evidence for everything. Dr's letters, police reports (domestic violence issues). At the end the second time I asked if there was anything else I could clarify for them.

Find out their issues as to space/resources etc that mean they can't stretch. In my case they said communal areas too small. I found out that in some of the other parts of the school classes were under allocated and so pointed out communal areas were not at capacity.

I think in the end it really does come down to other people appealing and their cases. All you can do is explain clearly your case. Good luck

And at the first appeal I did nothing wrong. That is why second appeal was granted.

Good for you @DownstairsMixUp. But did you state those exceptional circumstances at the time of application? If not, why not? If you had, you might have got a place much sooner with no need to go to appeal. Appeals are so much more adversarial than the exceptional medical/social circumstances process and place a much bigger administrative burden on the school, local authority (if they administer the appeals) and applicant. I'm an admissions link-governor, so as well as chairing the committee that (sympathetically) considers exceptional circumstances applications I also represent our school at appeals. For the latter we are specifically told by the Local Authority that we must not support the appellant's case and, if we do, that part of our input will be disregarded by the appeals panel.

@DownstairsMixUp

Yep we did stare at the time, totally ignored unfortunately! Would of been a lot better that way, having to speak about it during an appeal was really difficult! :(

In that case I'm not surprised you won the appeal. Good for you.

"For the latter we are specifically told by the Local Authority that we must not support the appellant's case and, if we do, that part of our input will be disregarded by the appeals panel."

Haha! There's nothing in the appeals code that says the panel must disregard any evidence. The LA just don't want you to. There have been several times a Head Teacher attends panel and when questioned on the fact that they have a temporary classroom (offered as evidence the school is full) they say "Oh no, the temporary classroom is actually really lovely and airy...all the teachers fight over who gets to teach there..." and the LA rep puts their head in their hands.

The LA just don't want you to.

Well, no, that's because the LA support all our local schools and know most people who are appealing are essentially just trying to avoid being allocated to the least popular one (the only one which isn't over-subscribed). The appeals panels follow LA guidance, and very few appeals are granted - our school has had none granted in the 7 years I've been a governor. That's why some of the advice on appeal grounds I see here on Mumsnet sometimes surprises me - clearly things operate differently elsewhere. But then all our local schools have the exceptional medical/social criterion, so applicants with strong cases do get in that way.

"The appeals panels follow LA guidance."

They shouldn't be. They should be following the Appeals Code. If LA guidance falls in line with that, great. But it's the Code that counts.

There is nothing wrong with advice that helps posters to navigate the system. I disagree with over inflated appeal statements, but I also think parents need to be given the information that they need to decide how best to present their case. A parent who has printed reams of 'evidence' about the Government's green transport strategy, how allowing his child a place would fall in line with that, etc., would be far better off being told that none of that will count. But the appeals code says that there must be no restriction in the nature of appeal allowed. On forums like this, we can tell people to save their breath telling panels how tricky the school run makes their lives.

Agree completely with Lougle.

If any appeal panel follows guidance from the LA that differs from the Appeals Code, that would be grounds for the LGO/ESFA (depending on the type of school) to award another hearing with a different appeal panel.

The standards should be broadly the same across the country. However, there is actually wide variation in the proportion of successful appeals. In Hounslow, only 2% of secondary appeals were successful in 2019/20 (the most recent year for which statistics are available), whereas 61% of appeals in Derbyshire succeeded. I am not aware of any research into the reasons for this wide variation.

I doubt the LA's guidance differs from the appeals code, but given those numbers there is clearly plenty of room for different interpretations.

We recently went to appeal for our daughter, with medical evidence, and lost. All 17 of the appeals for this particular school did, which apparently is quite unusual.

Supermonkey this can happen. It is nothing to do with the strength or otherwise of the appellants case, it has everything to do with the over-whelming strength of the school's case, assuming that the panel is giving due consideration to each of the appeals.

Yes, there's quite a lot of political pressure to keep spaces as they are. 🤞 There are some changes in the wind potentially though.